Iggy gets the Willies
by Whiteskin and Darklips
Summary: The flock's on another CSM mission, painting houses for Habitat for Humanity. There's also a youth mission group from Texas who's helping, and among them, a girl who tells them an interesting story about a cliché that Iggy uses *in "Fang"*. Sequel up.


I, Whiteskin and Darklips, do not own Maximum Ride or the ballet Giselle with the story behind the Willies. Nor do I intend to make a profit off of this story; I was entertaining my muse.

_(Max's Point of View)_

We were flying over—I won't tell you where for reasons of secrecy—but we were headed towards Wyoming.

"I can't believe you let Dr. Martinez talk you into doing another thing for CSM," Iggy said.

My mother had convinced me, by not letting the subject drop, to go paint houses to help others. Blah, blah, blah. I'm all for helping people, but Iggy is kind of right. I mean we keep getting ambushed during these things.

"Sorry, but this time she said that nothing unusual would happen. The only people who are going to be there besides us and the Habitat for Humanity is this one group from Texas. And they're youths," I said.

"As if that's any guarantee for our safety," Iggy almost spat.

"I know, I know, but at least we can do an U and A if there's any danger," I was resigned.

"Fine," he let the subject drop.

Later at the houses that we were going to paint:

Oh my…Well how about, what the H E double toothpicks. The group from Texas was HUGE! I guess that could be a good thing considering how many houses we need to paint, but the whole don't feel comfortable in large crowds defiantly applied.

"OKAY EVERYBODY—" said the Habitat for Humanity person with a big megaphone, "I want all of you to grab a brush and then pair up with a buddy and take a paint tray to get filled with paint. Then Rosie, who's pouring the paint, will tell you which house to go over to and start painting."

The Texas group whooped and hollered, as if painting houses was going to be the most fun thing that they would do in their lives.

In the rush to get brushes the flock was pressed tight among the Texans. Claustrophobia city. Every single one of us looked uncomfortable.

"This is giving me the willies," Iggy said.

Obviously the situation was more than any of us could handle.

I heard giggling. I looked around, and found that we weren't too far from the edge of the blob of people pressing us in. I also saw the girl who was giggling.

"What's so funny?" I asked her as I tried to maneuver out of the press and leading the rest of the flock.

She followed us to answer.

"He said that standing in the crowd was 'giving him the willies,'" nodding to Iggy.

"What's so strange about that?" he asked.

"Well I assume you know what it means if you're using that particular cliché," she said.

"Yeah, something that causes apprehension or discomfort," Iggy said with confusion.

"Well, do you know the story behind that particular cliché?" she asked.

"What story?" I asked, now curious.

"Do you know what a Willie is?" she said with utmost seriousness.

I raise my eyebrows at her wondering if we should really be talking about such things.

"Oh no. Not that. Obviously you don't know what I'm talking about," she rushed, realizing what I was thinking about.

"Then could you explain it?" I asked.

Most of the group had dispersed at this point, so we all went up to get brushes. We shared paint trays, me and Fang, Iggy and the girl, Nudge and a left over boy, and Gazzy and Angel.

She started talking once we were all set and painting.

"Well, it's like this. Willies are the ghosts of women who died of a broken heart."

"Oh no, you're not tell that story again? Why do you have to bring up ballet all the time, Vine?" the boy asked.

"I didn't bring it up, exactly. One of these boys said something about the crowd giving them the willies and I laughed. They asked me to explain myself, so I must do it thoroughly. The connection between the phrase and the ballet Giselle is not my fault, Ash," the girl named Vine answered.

"Whatever," he said.

She turned back to us, "Where was I? Oh yeah, brokenhearted ghosts."

Angel asked all innocently, "Why were they brokenhearted?"

"Because of what else—a man who broke a promise to them, a promise of love. And these Willies had a queen—don't remember the name, sorry. Every night the Willies would appear in the forest, or maybe it was the graveyard, but they would be there at night, but not during the day. And if a man happened to show up, do you know what they did?"

The whole flock said, "No."

The boy, Ash, looked uneasy, I wonder why, but said nothing.

"They danced him to death. They danced, and they made him dance, and they would make him dance until dawn, at which point he would die."

Shocking. Slightly amusing, but shocking.

I looked at Nudge, and saw she sported small smile. Angel did too.

I looked at the boys.

Both Iggy and Gazzy had open mouths and horrified looks. Fang seemed to be unperturbed, except for the slightly haunted look in his eyes.

"Great, Vine. Now you've scared the bejeezus out of those guys. They're gonna have nightmares for weeks," Ash said.

"Sorry," she apologized to all of us.

"You know. I don't think I'm gonna use that phrase anymore," Iggy said with a white face.

"Again I'm sorry," the girl actually seemed sincere.

"Maybe we should just finish painting," I said, wanting to drop the subject now.

Well so much for Mom's promise that nothing unusual would happen.


End file.
